The development of flow analysis, particularly
interregional repercussion analysis, is severely handicapped by the
dearth of data. For a number of years, NASA and the Pentagon have
released data on the distribution of prime contractors
in the United States. More recently, NASA also made accessible
information on subcontract: and "sub-subcontracts." The paper suggests a
way to utilize these data for capturing simple, two-region feedback
effects of subcontract: which 'leak" from the prime
-contracting region. The aggregate bilateral feed-back coefficient for
any one region is an aggregate expression of three component-coefficients
which isolate those parts of first-round subcontracts awarded to
individual other regions, those parts resubco
ntracted in the receiving regions, and, finally, those portions
"returning" to the initial subcontracting region. A simplified and
incomplete matrix of interstate subcontracting coefficients suggests the
possibility of hierarchical characteristics in this
interregional pattern with California as the dominant region